Xmucane is the female creator figure associated with the Popol Vuh’s creation story. She is one half of the divine ancestral pair Xmucane and Xpiacoc, who help guide the gods’ attempts to create humanity.
The Popol Vuh describes several failed experiments before the successful creation of people from maize. Xmucane and Xpiacoc act as diviners or daykeepers, casting lots and advising the other creator powers. In the final creation, Xmucane helps prepare the maize substance that becomes the bodies of true human beings.
Xmucane is also the divine grandmother of the Hero Twins, Hunahpu and Xbalanque. At first she distrusts their mother, Xquic, and rejects the twins, but she later raises and accepts them. This makes her role broader than that of a distant creator: she is also an ancestral elder, diviner, grandmother, and guardian of the family line.
The Popol Vuh names several creator powers, including Heart of Sky and the Plumed Serpent. Thus Xmucane is not the sole creator, but she is the canonical female creator figure in the K’iche’ narrative.